My Story
by 6Troublemakers
Summary: Ino was dating Kiba when she accidently cheated on him with Kankuro. Suddenly, it's second semester and in Pre-Calc Ino is stuck sitting by Kiba's friends, Neji, Shikamaru, and Naruto. As the semester goes on, she realizes that these boys have relationship problems that can only be solved by a woman's touch. But Kiba is less than happy by their new friendship. Uh oh.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This is a new story, and I'm trying a different writing style than my usual nonsense so bear with me I hope you'll enjoy this story! Don't judge it by the first chapter and keep on reading

It's not like she planned this and if she did, she wouldn't be having this conversation now. It was so hard to tell him, and she didn't understand why this had to happen to her but she knew that she was in too deep now to turn back.

"I need to tell you something," she began. Yes, that was a safe beginning.

"Okay babe, you can tell me anything," he replied, his voice still stupidly happy as it had been throughout their whole relationship, even if it was only four months.

"Well you know last Friday when you were gone?" she asked. She was trying to avoid the topic, maybe she'd make up a lie and she wouldn't have to tell him. But what would Kankuro think? He had already waited so long for her.

"Yeah, what about it?" he asked. He didn't seem very concerned at all, but he was about to be very, very concerned.

"Well… Okay, promise me you won't be mad at me," she rushed. It was now or never.

"Why would I be mad at you?" he asked so innocently naïve. If only she hadn't been so naïve last Friday.

"Well… Something happened…" she inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, rolling over to face the wall next to her bed.

He grew very silent. "What did Kankuro do?" he immediately assumed. And for once, he had assumed right.

"Well, you can't be mad," she begged him, as if begging could help what was about to happen.

"What. Did. Kankuro. Do?" he asked again, this time not so nicely, with a hint of worry and a hint of anger in his voice.

"H-he," she tried. Nothing was coming out right, how could she say anything at a time like this? "He kissed me!" she exploded. After the words settled into the air and the other line of the phone became deathly silent, she wanted to take it all back. The hurting in her chest began again and her stomach begged to empty itself through her throat but she fought the urge.

"Did you kiss him back?" he asked her through clenched teeth.

"No! Of course not!" she helplessly replied. Helpless. That's how she felt. What could she do anymore?

"Where was this?"

"On the stairs that nobody goes up," she replied. Her head was spinning, her world was spinning, and it was coming to a screeching halt.

"Okay." Was all that he said. Okay? Would it ever be okay again? She wondered.

"Are you mad?" she asked frantically, sitting up from her bed and trying to fight back red hot tears.

"No." he simply said. What was with these one word answers? Why did he only answer her with one word? Was she not worth multiple words anymore?

"I'm sorry," was all that she could think to say. But it wasn't her fault! It's not like she asked him to kiss her! He forced it upon her!

"It's okay," he simply said. It's like he couldn't think of anything to say either, so she wasn't so alone.

"Want me to let you go then?" she asked after a few grueling moments of silence.

"Yes," he said without emotion.

"Well, goodnight Kiba then," she said.

"Goodnight Ino," and then she heard the click of the other line. Little did she know that this was the end of her reputation, her relationship, and some of her dignity. What followed the next few months weren't pleasant.

"Kankuro, we need to talk," Ino told her now boyfriend as they were walking through the halls of school to her class.

"Okay, what about babe?" he asked seemingly innocent, but he knew exactly what she wanted to talk to him about. After Kiba and her broke up she was so upset that she didn't know what to do with herself. Luckily Kankuro, being the selfish bastard that he is, asked her to be his girlfriend and she accepted without a second thought. Not because she was so set on him, but because she didn't know what else to do but hurt Kiba like he hurt her. But in reality, Kankuro was the one who hurt the both of them.

"Well for starters, who do you hang out with on the weekends?" she asked, knowing the answer full well.

"Just the guys, you know," he spoke nonchalantly. But even though he kept telling her, she knew he wasn't with the guys and she knew that he wasn't alone. She had heard rumors of him hooking up with other girls on the weekend, which explained his absence and constant cancelling of plans perfectly.

Ino sighed and dropped his hand, stopping in her tracks in the middle of the hallway. "Though you keep telling me that, I know you're not with them," she glared up at him.

"Okay," he just said. Was that all that men could say now a day? Just "okay"?

Ino sighed once more and turned away from him, "Well whether or not you want to confess, I don't care. We're done and I'm done with your shit," and with that she walked away, leaving Kankuro with a stupid look on his face, as if he didn't know that that was coming.

Two months together and all he did was ignore her and cheat on her, Ino started to wonder why this selfish bastard had to be the one to ruin her seemingly perfect relationship with Kiba. But what's done is done, and she couldn't change that now. Besides, winter break was just a day away and she planned to use this time to recuperate and get herself together.

Now it was the first day of school back from winter break. Ino never claimed to be the smartest girl, but she knew she certainly wasn't dumb. She was in Pre-Calculus as a sophomore while Kankuro couldn't even pass Pre-Calculus as a senior! She enjoyed being somewhat better than that scumbag, and infinitely better than Kiba and all of his drama that followed his finding out about Kankuro and her.

She walked into her first period class, excited at the promise of actually having a good Pre-Calc teacher this semester. But what greeted her was not the promise of a good education, but six pairs of beady, vengeful, disapproving eyes. Like they had any right at all to criticize, however, they were just as bad as her. But for some reason, when a relationship falls apart, the woman is always blamed.

Neji, Naruto and Shikamaru greeted her with all of their sourness and she felt self-conscious. They were juniors, why were they terrorizing a little sophomore? Kiba used to tell her that her age was a problem and that he didn't like sophomores, wouldn't his best friends think the same?

She immediately regretted her outfit choice as she took the seat farthest from the boys. She was wearing a tight red tank top, a short jean skirt that reached her belly button, and a pair of red vans. She thought she looked smoking, but the friends of Kiba were probably judging her as she thought. She shifted in her seat uncomfortably and begged the time in this class period to go by quickly.

Mr. Iruka walked in as the bell rang, "Welcome to Pre-Calc!" he announced with a smile, going to the front of the room to take his rightful position.

"Now, for starters we're going to be changing seats. You'll see that the desks are in groups of four, that's so that your peers can help you if you have questions. Now everyone stand up and move to the front of the room while I read off my chart and tell you where to sit," and as he finished, everyone got their stuff and stood where he told them to stand.

There were about six groups of four desks scattered all around the room, and Ino begged with God above to not put her next to Kiba's wretched friends. But what happened next made Ino lose a little bit of faith in God.

"Shikamaru Nara," Mr. Iruka pointed to a desk and Shikamaru lethargically moved to it. "Naruto Uzamaki," he pointed to the desk across from Shikamaru and Naruto bounded over to the desk and gave Shikamaru a high five and said something about this being a "kick ass semester".

"Neji Hyuuga," he pointed to the desk next to Shikamaru and Naruto, being the loud mouth that he is, cheered loudly. _Great,_ Ino thought. _Now all the morons are together and I don't have to worry about sitting next to them._

"Ino Yamanaka," Iruka announced as he pointed to the seat across from Neji. Ino's heart dropped and she wondered why such a thing had to happen to her, they were the last people she wanted to sit by, or see. Ever.

But still, Ino sucked it up and sat by the desk across from Neji and next to Naruto. The three boys exchanged a mischievous glance and they all smiled sinisterly to Ino.

The semester had just started and she was already ready for the last day of school!

"This is going to be a long semester," she said under her breath as she reached to take her notebook out of her bag.


	2. Chapter 2

It was now nearing the end of February and it was about two months into the new semester. Ino had Pre-Calc everyday with Kiba's friends but after all of the awkwardness blew over, the boys paid no mind to Ino. In fact, they complete overlooked her.

They grew so comfortable overlooking her in fact, that they forgot to keep some revealing information concealed. For starters, Kiba was now dating Hinata and they had been dating since the beginning of January. This was a bitter pill to swallow for Ino, but after the dizzying shock of it all it soon seemed routine and natural for Kiba to be with Hinata.

The other piece of information that they boys forgot to keep concealed was the fact that all had relationship problems, or love problems in some way. Naruto couldn't get over Sakura dumping him, although this took place around late December, early January and Shikamaru couldn't stop complaining about how Temari was always yelling at him for ignoring her. But possibly the worst situation of the three boys was Neji's, he had been dating Tenten for about six months but he decided that he liked someone else, and he was trying to be as mean as possible to Tenten to get her to dump him.

It was a terrible thing for Ino to learn about her friend, Tenten's relationship.

"I just don't know how to get her back," Naruto complained, half-heartedly listening to Iruka teach the lesson of the hour.

"Have you tried texting her?" Neji asked, as if texting her constantly would fix anything.

"Yeah," sighed Naruto, "I've texted her every few weeks since we broke up but she never replies,"

Ino winced at the thought of Naruto obsessively texting Sakura, surely that wasn't the way to get back Sakura. She knew that in her heart the window for second chances had been closed when they broke up in late December or early January—she couldn't remember—but Naruto still thought that there was a chance there. She wanted badly to speak up and tell him to let it go, because he couldn't control how she felt any longer, but how could she phrase it properly?

"Maybe she's taking her time," Neji offered, thinking of nothing else to say to console his hopeless friend and his equally as hopeless situation.

There was a long pause between the love sick boys and Ino took this as an opportunity for a woman's touch.

"Naruto," she spoke up. "Maybe you should just stop trying," she quickly added, surprised at her own boldness in the face of such powerful enemies.

"The fuck?" Naruto asked, seemingly shocked by her talking, and even more so shocked by her advice. How could giving up ever be the answer?

"What do you mean?" Neji asked coldly, obviously they were still on Kiba's side and they wanted to be nothing but mean to her.

"I mean that the window of opportunity for second chances has been closed a long time ago, she's not going to come back now, or any other time. By obsessively texting her, you're just pushing her farther and farther away—" Ino was cut off instantly by Naruto.

"I'm not pushing her away! She just needs time to miss me and come back to me!" he argued stupidly.

"She won't miss you if you never go away," Ino muttered, deciding that he wasn't worth getting in a fight with.

The whole pod was immediately silent after her speech. It was like what Ino said was ground breaking to them, earth shattering to their love lives.

"You'll get over it," Shikamaru offered, trying to ease the silent tension.

"When the hell does that begin?" Naruto complained, resting his head on the desk underneath folded arms.

"It begins when you want it to begin," Ino tried again.

"So it could happen right now?" Naruto asked dully, trying to stump Ino and her god-like advice.

"Do you want it to happen right now?" Ino asked after pondering for a second.

"Yes," Naruto flatly answered.

"If you want to heal, then from this moment on, change the way you feel, get real, and pull yourself together," Ino instructed almost harshly. But she hadn't meant to be harsh, she just knew that her friend Sakura was long since over him.

Naruto didn't answer, and the other boys seemed to ignore her advice, moving on to a different topic.

"Still trying to get rid of Tenten?" Naruto asked Neji, trying to direct the conversation from him.

Neji sighed, "Yes, I can't tell her the truth, but I can't keep Hanabi waiting forever either,"

The fact that Neji was being so untruthful and so unfaithful disgusted Ino, but the fact that he was trying to date his younger cousin was absolutely unacceptable. But seeing as Ino dated Kankuro, she felt that she was in no position to judge.

"Well, just keep trying my man," Naruto flatly encouraged, still upset over the fact that he had to let Sakura go.

"Don't fuck around with someone's emotions," Ino butted in. Neji, Naruto, and Shikamaru all looked at her.

"Tell her the truth, it'll hurt worse when she finds out from someone else and I'm sure she already knows that you're trying to break up with her. She's just trying to hold on because she cares for you so much," Ino added sternly.

"Listen, can you shut up for once?" Naruto asked, raising his head and looked irritated at her.

Ino's eyes widened and she turned her head towards her lap out of embarrassment. They were right; it wasn't her place to give such instructions, even if she did have good intentions.

"No, let her go on, she speaks a lot of truth and she has some good advice," Shikamaru stood up for her. Ino silently thanked him for his hand in lessening her embarrassment.

"But she keeps butting in—" Naruto protested.

Shikamaru held up a hand to cut him off, "I want to ask you a question," he looked directly at Ino with intensely scrutinizing eyes.

Ino nodded slowly and gave him her full attention.

"As you've probably heard, Temari is mad at me for not paying 'attention' to her. What can I do to fix it?" he asked. The answer was simple and clear to Ino, but Shikamaru and the other two seemed genuinely perplexed by the situation.

"Well, you could start by texting her first, actually replying to her texts, calling her, asking to hang out with her outside of school, and obviously, spending time with her in school," she answered quickly and simply, trying to make it easily understood by blatantly clueless boys.

Shikamaru thought about this for a second and leaned back in his chair, "And what if I don't do any of that?" he challenged.

Ino blinked, surprised at such a smart boy having so much stupidity. "Well then you'll be without her, it's as easy as that. You just can't have a girlfriend when it's convenient for you, you have to work at it or else you'll lose her," she chastised him.

Shikamaru nodded slowly and stared up at the boards of the ceiling, "I see… You know, you're pretty alright for a cheater," he smirked at her.

Ino's skin crawled at his term. _Cheater_. It seemed to echo through her mind and seep out onto her skin and stain it forever. _Cheater_, that was all that she could think of and all that she was.

But how could these stupid boys, who couldn't even figure out that girls don't wait around forever, understand the gravity of that term? How could they possibly know or understand what actually happened? Heck, even Kiba didn't understand what happened! Why? Because like Shikamaru and Neji, he never tried.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ugh, he won't stop texting and calling me!" Sakura complained staring down at her phone with distain. Ino and Sakura were walking to lunch together and they were planning to meet up with their friends Tenten and Temari at the lunch room.

"So I see he didn't listen to me," Ino sighed. She had told Sakura all about her pep talk to Kiba's friends earlier this morning and she had thought that she had fixed her friend's problems, but apparently not.

"Of course he didn't! He's Naruto! I've already moved on but he can't seem to take the hint and do the same!" Sakura whined.

"There's nothing you can do about it," Ino consoled her.

"I guess not!" Sakura agreed.

As they neared the lunch room Ino remembered that she needed to get some homework done during lunch, "Hey, I just remembered that I need to do some homework for Physics during lunch. I got to go get my book so I'll meet you at our usual table," Ino told Sakura, already running off in the direction of her locker before hearing Sakura's reply.

As she was rushing to her locker, she heard a cry. Well, it was a _cry_, but someone _crying_, she immediately stopped to see if her ears deceived her. She waited for a while, before hearing a sniffle. She looked around hurriedly, trying to find the crier.

But after she hadn't heard anything for a while, she started walking at a slow pace, still wildly looking around. As she passed a door to a classroom she saw a boy sitting down squished between the wall perpendicular to the classroom door and the gap between the beginning of the lockers.

Ino decided that she had better make sure he wasn't injured or anything so she approached with caution and knelt down to meet his eye level, "Hey are you oka—" she stopped midsentence when the boy lifted his face to meet hers and she realized it was Shikamaru.

He just shook his head, his whole body shaking from trying to hold in his tears, "No, I'm not okay," he whimpered.

Ino figured that she'd better be friendly, after all this boy was the only one of Kiba's friends that seemed to like what advice she offered. She sat down across from Shikamaru in the middle of the hallway. She placed her bag on the ground and gave her his full attention.

"Is it Temari?" she asked with complete control in her voice.

Shikamaru nodded solemnly. "Did she leave you?" Ino asked, knowing full well that her friend was talking of leaving him for a long time by now.

Once again, Shikamaru nodded, "I don't understand why she did it, I thought she loved me," he confessed, his tears yielding a little more now.

Ino had to stop herself from rolling her eyes, he really didn't know why she left him? Truly men know nothing!

"It's because you weren't paying enough attention to her," Ino said matter-of-factly. But what seemed obvious to her wasn't obvious to him, it seemed groundbreaking to him.

"Well what can I do to make her come back?" he asked after a silent interval which consisted of him trying to steady his breathing and stop his tears. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and he crossed his arms as he stared at Ino.

Ino pondered this for a minute. How could she phrase this in a way that he could understand? She sighed and adjusted her sitting position to cross legged, this was going to be a while.

"So once upon a time, I broke up with this guy," she began, looking directly at Shikamaru. His interest peaked and he stared at her intently, wanting to know where this was going. She took this as an opportunity to continue.

"I didn't care for him at the time, even though we were together for a long time, and after a while, we started talking again because we were friends. Soon I found out that he had a new girlfriend and that he was happy with her. And I, being the stupid girl that I was, begged for him back. For the next six months he was all that I could think about, I missed him like crazy. But all my begging just pushed him further and further away.

Then, when I finally got over it," Ino stopped to laugh at her past foolishness. Who knew that Sasuke Uchiha wasn't the beginning and the end of her love life? She didn't know at the time.

"I started dating again and I got serious with this other guy. And he broke up with me this time. Just like the other guy that I mentioned, I was heartbroken and he was all that I could think of. In my obsession, I spent all my time researching how to get him back. So much time in fact that I completely forgot about chasing him down that he came back and said that he was wrong and that he was sorry," before Ino could say his name or dwell on the past anymore, she decided to stop. She had made her point and Shikamaru could take what he wanted from her story.

Shikamaru stared at her for a while, with red pained eyes and red cheeks raw from wiping. After a long silence he spoke again, "So what you're saying is that I should pretend not to care and she'll come back?" he asked quietly.

Ino nodded slowly, "Yes, that's what worked best for me and that's what I think you should do. That, or get over it," She instructed.

Shikamaru shook his head rapidly, "I can't get over her!" he protested.

"Yes you can," Ino fought back, standing her ground with her words.

"But she's gone, I can't go on without her," Shikamaru told her, obviously being unusually rash in his emotional turmoil.

Ino shook her head slowly once more, "If there's one thing that I learned from all my adventures in dating it's this: Just because they're gone, doesn't mean that you have to be,"

Shikamaru widened his eyes at her but said nothing more, nor made any notion of saying anything more. Ino assumed her work to be done and she slowly got up and pulled her back up with her. She nodded to Shikamaru and started to go to her previous destination before she was sidetracked.

"Ino," Shikamaru called, still huddled in his corner. She turned around to meet his eyes, "How does that story end? The one you just told me about. Did you get back together with him or did you tell him to fuck off?" he asked, rising to his feet in the process, but still keeping the same distance between the two.

Ino smiled, "I don't know how the story ends, because my story's not over," and with that she turned around and walked with a new found purpose to her locker. She knew now that all that she had endured was now her strength. She could help other people learn from her mistakes, she had the wisdom.

Shikamaru watched her disappear before coming out of his corner, with new composure and dried eyes and he walked the opposite direction of Ino, thinking about what she said.

"'Just because they're gone doesn't mean that you have to be.' Hm. What an interesting girl," he thought aloud. He had a feeling that they were going to be very, very close.


	4. Chapter 4

She had to walk past him quickly, her heart beating fast at just seeing his face. Her head dizzying as she saw him with Hinata, holding hands and smiling. Why did he have to do this to her? Why was walking by him such a burden? She didn't even know. She was just afraid, and she had to get to Pre-Calc quickly before the bell rang.

She slid into her seat and she let out a long held breath. Naruto and Neji were already there, chatting animatedly about something, probably related to whatever they did last night.

Shikamaru came in as the bell rang, walking like a slug and seeming to have his head somewhere else. As he neared his seat, he saw Ino and he stopped. He let a nervous had massage the back of his neck while the other hand was buried deep in the comfort of his pocket.

"Hey, Ino," Ino shot up to look at him, although she had him in her peripheral vision the whole time. "Thanks for yesterday," he mumbled. Then he took his seat diagonal from Ino.

Class started and as Iruka started his lesson, so commenced the threesomes talking about the women in their life.

"Maybe you should just cheat on Tenten, it's not like she'll know. She won't suspect a thing," Naruto offered to Neji.

But before Neji could speak, Ino cut him off, "Don't cheat, that doesn't go well, it will ruin your rep," she counter advised him.

"Oh yeah, because a cheater would know the consequences," Naruto shot back. Obviously he was the one who had the hardest time accepting her.

"You don't even know the full story! Kiba wouldn't let me say anything!" she desperately defended herself.

"Then we're here, and we're listening. Tell us the story," Neji spoke emotionlessly.

Ino sighed and debated about whether telling them the story. It's not like they'd understand, men couldn't change their minds so easily. But as their expectant stares burned through her, she knew that this might the only chance she had to prove her innocence, and hopefully, it would make it back to Kiba.

"Well Kiba was gone, and it was a Friday. Kankuro texted me and asked me to hang out with him before school started, so I agreed to it because there was only like ten minutes before the bell rang. Then he told me that he had to go down to his locker after he met me by the library on the second floor, so I said okay and I started walking down the main stairs. Then he told me that his locker was closer to the stairs in the Math hallway, so he started leading us that way," she choked. She couldn't remember everything correctly, but she knew that it happened.

The boys were looking at her expectantly, and she couldn't reveal her weakness and her shame. So she pressed on: "As we were walking down the stairs that no one goes down, he stopped suddenly and leaned against the wall on the landing. I asked him what was wrong and he said something about 'not wanting to do it now' so I just assumed that he meant going down to his locker. I thought he was sick or something so I asked him what was wrong.

He didn't answer and as the bell rang, he grabbed me and kissed me. I was in so much shock that I stared up at him and he just smiled. Then he asked me if he could walk me to class and I just nodded, because I couldn't think of anything else to say," she explained.

The boys looked at her, processing what she had just said. It was Naruto who spoke first, breaking the silence with his yappy voice, "So you didn't punch him?"

Ino looked at him with disgust in his insensitivity and she just shook her head.

"Then that's cheating," Naruto determined, as if he had any right to.

"So whether or not I punched Kankuro determines whether I cheated or was taken advantage of?" she asked, she had had enough of his crap. Of all of their crap, it wasn't fair! As if a girl of barely five-foot-four could punch a man of six feet and get away unscathed! Well that was a wise decision, punch a big hockey player with no one around. She made a mental note to bring this up later.

"Yeah, if you didn't fucking punch him, then you fucking cheated," Naruto reassured her as he leaned back in his chair and stretched nonchalantly.

"Wow. Well I'm glad that punching a guy that kisses you determines the fine line of cheating and being taken advantage of. Thanks so much for your input, that really helped clear things up. I'm glad that as a woman of barely five-foot-four, I can have the opportunity now to punch men who are big hockey players and are six foot whatever with no one around. Yeah, that's a wise decision!" she snapped.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her, but then looked up at the ceiling, still content with his unwavering and equally unfair judgment.

"I don't think that it's cheating," Neji spoke up quietly.

Naruto leaned forward at Neji and stared at him intently, "Kiba said that it's cheating, if you kiss a guy that's not your boyfriend then that's cheating. End of story, no questions asked,"

"Well she didn't have a say in whether she kissed him or not, I think that you should stop being so unfair on her. She's a sophomore, she's not as mature as us juniors are," Neji defended her, while, ironically, offending her as well.

Ino was ready for another outburst; it bubbled inside her and begged to boil over. She let the top off of his bubbling rage, "More mature than me?! Unlike your stupid friend Kiba I didn't spread rumors, I didn't make a big deal about it, and I didn't say a single bad thing about him! You're the ones who can't see that because I'm a woman, I'm being treated unfairly in this situation!

If the same thing would've happened to Kiba, he wouldn't have told me. And if by some strange twist in the universe he did, I would've been expected, as the obedient girlfriend, to forgive him! Why can't the same courtesy that I would've been expected to give be given to me? God damn! You all are so stupid sometimes!" she raged. It felt so good to point out the difference between the sexes, after all she felt like she was being oppressed for so long.

"Calm down," Shikamaru said after all of the boys gave her a shocked look at her outburst.

She slammed her fist on the table, "Why should I? I'm not putting up with this shit anymore, I don't deserve this,"

"I know you don't," Shikamaru told her.

Ino recoiled from the audacity of his words. Someone actually believed her? Someone actually took her side? She could've kissed him if he wasn't so repulsive!

"Yes she does, fair and square! She did it so—" Naruto rushed, trying to prove his point. He was in danger of losing the battle, he had to get everyone on his side again.

"Shut up Naruto, let me talk to Ino," Shikamaru coldly ordered. Naruto glared at him but turned his head to the board, pretending to pay attention.

"Have you tried telling Kiba this?" he asked, leaning toward her with intense and serious eyes.

"Yes! I've tried to make it right, but there are some things I can't control," she rolled her eyes and turned away from him.

"Y'know he's talked about trying to reconcile with you," Shikamaru revealed to her.

Ino whipped her head around to face Shikamaru again and she crossed her arms with intense frustration, "Oh so now he wants to talk? That's so fitting! It's just like him! I remember times when he didn't want to talk to me at all! I can't take this shit anymore!"

Shikamaru sighed, "Just try finding him and talking to him today,"

"Find him?! Yeah right! He glares at me when I walk by him and it's so uncomfortable for me!" she spat back.

"Just. Try it." Shikamaru insisted once more.

"But if I can barely walk past him—" Shikamaru cut her off with his hand.

"Aren't you tired of being afraid of him? Do something about it," he told her, trying to give her the same advice that she had given him the day prior.

"Well yes," she calmed down enough to manage speaking to him.

"Then quit spending all your time wishing that you could disappear when you see him, this is your school too. You have just as much of a right to be here as he does," Shikamaru told her.

Ino looked at him, astounded at the level of his maturity. And then Ino decided something, she was finally going to accept Kiba's request on Facebook that had been sitting there since about November, and she was going to try messaging him.

After all, she had spent all of these months wishing that she could disappear, and she wasn't going to hide anymore. Whatever she could do to make it right, to make him listen, she was going to do it. _No more hiding_, she vowed.

And just like that, the old confident Ino was back again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** So I like the speculation of who will end up with who ^-^ but I must say, I'm the author and you guys don't know where I'm going with this so quit saying "I KNOW that this is a Kiba and Ino story, but I want her to end up with Shikamaru!" It's a work in progress, and a lot more drama is going to happen before the end. And because everyone's making such a big fuss, I might as well just make Ino end up with Kankuro again! I like the fact that everyone's so into this story, but once again, I'm the author so let me work it out

It was now after school, and Ino had been thinking of Kiba all day. She was feeling like no one would ever love him the way that he loved her, that Kankuro was a selfish pig for coming in and ruining what they had for his own amusement.

Instead of going to cheer practice, like she should've done, she instead slammed her locker closed and booked it to the nearest bathroom, to pull herself together, also to find some kind of way to fight off the impending tears. She clutched the sink and loomed over it, her body shaking with tears. She was wailing now, and it felt so good to get it out of her system.

However, who she didn't want to walk in, and who really shouldn't have walked in, walked in. The awkward stranger cleared his throat and she flung her head up to meet his reflection in the mirror.

"What are you doing here?" she managed to choke out. She started to rub her eyes with the back of her hand, "This is a girls' restroom, the boys' is across from this one," she informed him.

"I know that, I just," Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck, feeling even more awkward at the sight of her crying, "I just wanted to ask your help. You give good advice and Neji could really use some right now. But that's not important right now," he shook his head and stared at the broken mess which was her reflection in the mirror, "What's going on with you?" he asked.

Ino was shocked that he even cared about her feelings; no one had ever stopped to think of her in this whole mess. "What do you care?" she sniffled, remembering who she was talking to.

"I care a lot, you helped me, now I'm going to help you," he insisted so surely as he put his hands in his pockets.

Ino wrenched out a tear and leaned forward as her body sobbed with her, "It's just hard, y'know?"

Shikamaru nodded, "It's Kiba isn't it?"

Ino sniffled once more and brought her hand to the bottom of her nose, "Yes, it's always Kiba," she confessed.

Shikamaru opened his mouth to say something but Ino interrupted him, "It's like the moment you forget about him, someone does something to make you miss him again. It's like losing him all over again, it sucks. I just want for all of this to end,"

She stopped to wipe a tear from her cheek before continuing as she laughed through her tears, "Sometimes life is such a disaster. And I know that any minute things could get better, and I'm so close but I'm not there yet," she wiped her eyes once more before turning to Shikamaru.

"Alright, let's go see Neji," she told him.

"Are you sure? It can wait, you don't seem like you're in the state to deal with this," he looked at her with worry. He didn't know that after all of these months that she'd still be broken up about this. But he supposed that dealing with everything on her own would be hard.

"Yeah, now let's get out of here before a girl walks in and gives you a hard time," she smiled weakly at him at she opened the door. Shikamaru nodded and followed her out of the bathroom.

They walked to the English hallway and sitting on the usual bench, nestled between a gap between the lockers, sat Neji, Naruto, and surprisingly Kiba. Ino stopped in her tracks and stared at Kiba, sitting in the place that they used to sit. She was swept up by an overwhelming wind of nostalgia at just the sight of him sitting there.

Shikamaru grabbed her shoulder and she turned to face him, "Remember, this is your school too, you have a right to be here just as much as he does,"

Ino nodded and freed herself from his grip; she walked briskly and with her head held high towards the three boys at the bench.

"Ino, what—" Kiba started as he stood up. He didn't look mad at all to see Ino, but more pleasantly surprised. Ino ignored this and marched on to sit next to Neji, not at all paying attention to Kiba.

"So what do you need to get off your chest Neji?" Ino asked, not glancing once at Kiba who was standing over her and Neji.

Neji shifted his weight on the bench, "So I made a mistake, I made out with another girl. I don't know how to tell Tenten, or if I should," Neji told her without hesitation. He seemed to want to get this conversation over with.

He leaned back against the wall behind the bench and he watched Ino with expectant eyes, "Well, Shikamaru said that you could help, I'm waiting,"

Ino sighed and decided that boys understood better in story, so she had to share her stories, once again.

"So, once upon a time," she began. Neji raised an eyebrow at her and Naruto exchanged a confused look with Kiba. "I was dating this guy," Shikamaru smiled as she opened up with that statement. He knew where she was going with this.

"And he lived about an hour away, so I didn't see him very much. But when he did come to visit, he was always texting some other girl. Soon he told me that he didn't love me anymore and I was absolutely devastated. Come to find out later, through a mutual friend of ours, that he was cheating on me. First there was Indigo, who he was screwing behind my back, and there was Sam, who he made out with at a party, then there was Katie Marie who he was also dating and then there was Kennedy, who he also made out with.

Finding out the truth after the fact made everything so much harder on me. I just wish that he would've told me about those girls in the first place instead of being the lying, deceitful shit that he was," she finished, placing her hands in her lap and waiting for Neji to reply after doing some pondering and soul searching.

Neji leaned forward to meet her gaze, his pale eyes seemingly lifeless. "So what you're saying is that I should tell Tenten before she finds out?"

Ino nodded, "Was the making out intentional?" she glanced at Kiba, hoping to put him on the spot as her cheating was unintentional. Neji shrugged.

"Well, regardless of who kissed who first, it's still cheating," she reasoned in a very Naruto way. She wanted to show him how stupid his logic was.

"Then I cheated," Neji fessed up, giving her the look of arrogance.

Ino nodded, "Then what are you going to do about it?"

"I guess just break up with Tenten," Neji reasoned staring up at the ceiling tiles.

Ino got up and stared down at Neji, "Not even give her a reason?" she asked, giving him one last chance before she went off on him.

"No, what's there to say?" he glanced at her before returning to staring at the ceiling.

"Well you could say that you're sorry, that you made a mistake, that you weren't feeling the same way about her for a while, that you liked someone else," she put her hands on his hips and leaned forward to his uncaring face. "There's a lot that you could say, but your pride is in the way! You don't want to admit that you were wrong! You want to keep her waiting around for as long as you possibly can so that you can boost up your ego, you're so full of shit Neji, I hope that you realize that! And she sure as hell will realize it once I tell her what you did!" she threatened.

"Hey! Are you going to take crap from that little girl? She's a sophomore, you're a junior, don't let her disrespect an upperclassman!" Naruto butted in, trying to save his friend from Ino's cruel words.

Ino turned to stare at Naruto, giving him her nastiest look, "You know what? I've had enough of your shit, Naruto. You're obsessed with Sakura and she's disgusted by you and you have the audacity to sit here and tell everyone that I'm wrong. You're the one who told him to cheat! He wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for you!"

"And we wouldn't be in this situation either, if it wasn't for you," Kiba mumbled.

Ino felt her anger boil inside her again, these boys always seemed to make her blood boil, to make her temper sizzle and her body shake from the rising heat inside of her.

"You know what Kiba, you used to talk about how you were so much older and more mature than I was. You may grow up, but you just grow old. And I can safely say that you haven't done much growing up since the first time we met,"

Ino shot him a dirty look and then she walked off, heading for the nearest exit so that she could get her little car and drive home so that she could cope with all of this. And once again, she was completely disregarding cheer practice.

"What a hassle," Naruto frowned, following her with his eyes as she disappeared around the corner.

Kiba sighed, "That's the Ino that I know,"

"Why don't you try talking to her?" Shikamaru asked Kiba, remembering the state that he found Ino in earlier.

Kiba laughed, "Why would I want to talk to that? I mean I know that I talked about it in the past, but I have Hinata now, and she's a lot better than Ino,"

"Why? Because unlike Ino, she doesn't have a mind of her own?" Shikamaru questioned, staring down Kiba intensely.

"It's got nothing to do with that," Kiba scrunched his nose in distaste.

"Is it because unlike Ino, you know that she won't act up? That you can control her easily? Is she better for your rep than Ino was?" Shikamaru drilled him with questions again.

Kiba was about to get angry when he sighed, and with the air that he released, he let it go. He didn't want to start crap with Shikamaru. "Just chill out bro, we're not talking about this," Kiba settled on saying.

Shikamaru just nodded and looked in the opposite direction. He didn't have to have confirmation from Kiba; he knew that Kiba's avoidance of the subject was confession enough. And for once, Shikamaru was starting to see Ino as a strong, independent woman trying to dig herself out of the mess that men had made for her.

And he couldn't help but respect her for that.

**Author's Note**: ^-^ so Indigo, Sam, Katie Marie, and Kennedy were the girls that my ex cheated on me with. Believe it or not, but this whole story is based off of my life. All of Ino's little stories are stories of my own, and the whole plot line of Kankuro kissing Ino while she was dating Kiba was something that recently happened to me! ^-^ but don't worry, the story has a happy ending. Why? Because I'm living it right now! ;D


	6. Chapter 6

It had been about a week since Ino had talked to Shikamaru, Neji, Naruto and Kiba. It was now a Tuesday and she was curling her long blonde hair for school. She had not paid any attention to any of the three boys in Pre-Calc, and she didn't answer Shikamaru when he talked to her, or asked her questions about what Neji should do with his guilt, or what Naruto should do with his new realization of his shameful behavior towards Sakura. She didn't even answer Shikamaru texts or calls, she was out of service for a while.

No, she had to figure some things out for herself. She had spent the past week thinking about her situation, how to make herself feel better and how to let go of Kankuro and his trickery. She knew that it wasn't her fault, despite everyone claiming otherwise, so all that was left was to forgive.

But suddenly, the idea came to her. She started to rekindle her spirit and grow stronger. She decided to take all of her pain from the past few months and apply it to something worthwhile. Ino knew that high school was just a temporary state, and unlike Kiba and his stupid friends, she wasn't going to let it be the end all be all of her life.

Kiba? That was going to be just a name that she could vaguely recall in about twenty years. In the grand scheme of things, he wasn't important at all. He wasn't going to affect what she was going to do with her life, and he certainly wasn't the only one out there for her.

Or so she reasoned. She also figured that since she was dedicating the next two years of high school to herself, that she might as well get back to her old self. She decided to start playing piano again, because when Kiba came along, she had no time to dedicate to her music. But now that she was living for herself, she could once again play piano.

And with this new confidence and reason, she felt like she could go to Pre-Calc, offer her now famous advice and buckle down and get her grade up in that class, as it was slipping with talking all the time and never paying attention. Just because Kiba was going nowhere, doesn't mean that she had to tag along with him.

She walked into class radiating positive energy, and Shikamaru seemed to take notice and raised his eyebrow. She just smiled at him and got her notebook out, getting ready to ask questions and educate herself in a math that was so important to her future.

But it wasn't even ten minutes into the class when Neji started to speak of his problems again, "I feel so bad for doing that to her. She was so angry with me for making out with that girl," he complained.

"Well maybe you can get her back somehow," Naruto encouraged his friend. Ino had to admit, Naruto was a supportive friend but he said the things that meant so little that it was normally disregarded.

"What do you think Ino?" Shikamaru asked, feeling her positive energy and like she had found herself once again.

Ino thought about it for a second, "You know, you always think that you'll be happy if just granted one more chance with a person, but that's not always the case," she tapped her pencil on her notebook.

"But the truth is, you have some great friends. And you'll never need more than that," she motioned to everyone at the table and Naruto smiled stupidly while Shikamaru smirked.

"So what you're saying is that Shikamaru and I need to get over our exes?" Neji asked, intrigued by her sudden change of attitude.

Ino bit the bottom of her lip, thinking of what to say next, "Well if you can realize that Tenten and Temari aren't the end of your life, that there are other girls out there that will love you, that high school isn't that big of a deal, then I'd call it good enough,"

Naruto smiled, understanding what she was saying. And for once, he didn't feel like making fun of her or snapping at her. For as nice as her silence was for the past week, he also missed her fire, and her belief in equality and being happy.

Ino looked at the board and started to write down the example problems, "Don't live in memories that will soon be forgotten, because time will go by and you'll heal. And soon, twenty years from now, you won't even remember these girls' names," she shared her revelation with them.

"Sounds like someone did some soul searching," Naruto grinned.

Ino smiled and nodded happily. She realized that these boys didn't hate her; she just thought that they hated her. And because she thought this, she did everything that should could to make them dislike her. But now that they had all come to the understanding that they were all friends, she realized that she didn't need more than this.

And she could finish the class period without feeling uncomfortable for once. But much to her surprise, and probably Kiba's dismay, they all chatted happily and joked and laughed together. And it was then that Ino remembered Shikamaru's words: "this is your school too," and she knew that she didn't need to avoid Hinata or Kiba anymore. Why? Because he no longer mattered.

Ino was sitting in her last period when she received a text from Shikamaru.

_Glad to have you back _

Ino smiled and typed a reply,

_Good to be back _

She continued taking notes on the history lesson, waiting for his reply. Suddenly her phone lit up and she looked at her lap.

_ want to meet me after school?_

Ino smiled once again, and typed a reply.

_Sounds good, my locker?_

And within seconds of sending the text, she got a reply.

_Sounds good! __ see you then!_

Ino smiled, she was becoming extremely close with Shikamaru now. She felt like this was good for her, like she needed to have an honest friendship for once. And Kiba wasn't going to ruin this for her either, his opinions no longer mattered and if he wanted to date Hinata, then so be it. They could rot in hell together for all she cared.

Ino was waiting at her locker for about five minutes after the bell rang, checking her phone every few seconds to make sure that Shikamaru hadn't cancelled on her.

The halls began to clear out and she was considering going home, because the security guards would surely come and kick her out soon if she didn't. They were always so rude, the bell rang five minutes ago but they couldn't wait to get home, could they?

As Ino finally gave up and started to walk towards the nearest exit, Shikamaru rounded the corner and called her name, "Ino!"

She turned around to see him running towards her and she smiled at him, "I was just leaving, want to walk with me?" she asked.

Shikamaru grinned lazily, "I'd love to escort you to your car,"

Ino smiled back at him. They walked in silence for a while before Shikamaru stopped and cleared his throat.

Ino cocked her head to the side at him, "What's wrong? Did you forget something?" she asked.

"Ino, I need to tell you something," Shikamaru said seriously. Ino thought that it was something bad, so she nodded and turned her body towards him to give him her full attention.

Shikamaru sighed and looked to the side with his eyes, "I—I like you Ino!" he blurted out.

Ino's mouth parted in shock and she stared at him wide eyed. When a reply from her lips wasn't apparent, he continued on, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"I was hoping that you felt the same way Ino, and if you do, will you be my girlfriend?" he went on further to say.

Ino was still in shock, and she shook her head rapidly, trying to get her thoughts back. She was speechless at his confession.

Shikamaru sighed and rocked on the heels of his feet, "Well?"

Ino shook her head once more, knowing exactly what to say. She knew that he was lonely, she could smell loneliness on him like last week's trash. She knew that Temari was hard for him to get over, and she knew that he liked her. A lot. So what could she do? Well, she knew how she felt and she had to say it.

"I—I don't feel the same way," she burst frantically. After the words had had time to settle and hang in the air like a stench, Shikamaru finally inhaled and exhaled heavily through his mouth.

"Shit," was all that he could say.


	7. Chapter 7

"I—I, j-just," she stuttered. Her mind was skipping all over the place from what he had just confessed and what she had just said.

Shikamaru held up his hand, "It's okay, I understand. I'm sorry for making things awkward. Now can I still walk you to your car?" he asked, trying to seem unfazed by her rejection. But really, it was burning inside of him, like the pain of losing Temari again.

"Yes you may—but Shikamaru! Let me explain!" she rushed.

Shikamaru nodded, giving her the okay to continue.

"Well it's not that I don't like you, I'm just done with dating in high school. Do you remember when I told you that my story wasn't over? Well it's not, it's just beginning. I just now realized that a few days ago. I don't need some boy in high school to make me happy, my future is going to be so much better than high school, and then I can find someone to mature enough to truly make me happy.

And if I don't date you, then no one can come in and mess our relationship up, and we can be together much longer if we stay friends. Don't you see it Shikamaru? I like you enough not to do that to you," she smiled, grabbing his hand and staring at his dark eyes.

Shikamaru smiled and looked down at her, with her golden, bouncy curls and purple long sleeve shirt with skinny jeans and boots.

"Then I guess that's good enough for me. Because I don't want to lose you either," he agreed.

Ino's smiled widened even more and she dropped his hand before continuing walking down the hall.

"Hey Ino," Shikamaru asked. Ino looked at him so as to give him her attention, "What do you want to be so badly that requires so much time and effort invested in the future?"

Ino pulled her keys out of her pocket and looked up and him as she leaned on the bar of the exit door, "An engineer," she told him, before hitting the bar with her hip and walking out the door.

Shikamaru held the door open and followed her out, "So that's why you're in Pre-Calc as a sophomore,"

Ino smiled, "Yup, and that's exactly why I have no time for boys in high school anymore. I have a bright future and big plans, I don't have any time to be caught up with the present when my future is looking so good!" she exclaimed, twirling around and glancing at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets and smirked at her, "Well I guess that I should follow your lead. I want to be a neurosurgeon, so I'd better buckle down too,"

"That's a wonderful thing Shikamaru! Let's stay friends then, because I'll never need more than your friendship to make me happy," she told him. And then she smiled up at him, as he smiled down at her and they had reached an understanding.

They weren't going to focus on high school, because it wasn't going to matter what happened with Kiba and Kankuro, it wasn't going to matter what advice Ino gave in math class, all that was going to matter was that they had earned their diplomas, and that they were moving onto bigger and better things.

Kiba and Hinata stayed together for the two years that was left in Ino's high school career, and Ino paid no mind to them. She had great new friends, like Shikamaru, Naruto and Neji that were more permanent than the two's temporary state of euphoria.

After all, aren't relationships a countdown until you can be lonely again?

Eventually, Ino decided that she wanted to be an engineer, and teach piano on the side while attending college. Shikamaru, being the clever guy that he is, went to college and eventually became a neurosurgeon.

He and Ino still kept touch, and they had talked about getting together, as their friendship withstood the trivial test of time. However, Shikamaru had bigger plans than just being in a relationship with her.

Hinata and Kiba eventually broke up, and Kiba tried to come back to Ino after seeing how well she was doing without him, but Ino told him that she was involved with someone else.

Kankuro, being the selfish drop out that he is, had to go to community college and get his priorities straight, as he graduated that year. Ino was glad that he was gone, because she could get her studying done much quicker without Kankuro's annoying ego ruining her concentration.

Naruto and Neji never got their exes back, but they didn't date anyone new either. Ino convinced them that high school relationships were obsolete and all four of them agreed to boycott relationships for a while. But of course, Naruto almost broke a few times when Sakura started being friendly with him again.

Both Neji and Naruto went to college after they graduated and their future is looking very bright indeed.

As for Tenten and Temari, they eventually moved on and became friends with Neji and Shikamaru, as well as Naruto.

Ino was glad that she could make such a big impression on everyone, because she was right about most things. Like all of their current lives were a lot better than high school, and for those whose lives didn't get any better than high school… Well, they're sad drop outs attending community college, just waiting to get their priorities straight.

**Author's Note:** So how'd you like the story? I told you that it had a happy ending! ^-^ in my life, I didn't date "Shikamaru" instead we stayed friends and that was all that I needed, because I realized that my life was going a better direction than "Kiba's" or "Kankuro's". ;)

I hope that this inspired a lot of people. Don't get down about some stupid boy or girl leaving you! There's so much in life! So much to be! And don't get down about some "Kankuro" not treating you like the great person you are! They're the lost ones, not you!

Remember, high school isn't that big of a deal, but your future is. So make your story worthwhile!


End file.
